One by one they boarded the plane.
Angel Gomes queued his pre-match playlist 10 hours early as he climbed the steps, Juan Mata shared a joke with goalkeeping coach Emilio Alvarez while Nemanja Matic was deep in discussion with goalkeeper Sergio Romero on the tarmac.
There were few surprising omissions for that short flight to Somerset on Friday morning. David de Gea, Phil Jones and Antonio Valencia are regularly rested for cup games to give them the occasional luxury of just one game a week while Daley Blind and Marouane Fellaini were not risked.
Talisman Paul Pogba has not been an unused substitute at all this season so the idea of him travelling all the way to Huish Park to sit on those creaking benches was a little fanciful.
What of compatriot Anthony Martial? This used to be the kind of occasion where the 22-year-old had to lay down a marker to enhance his prospects under Jose Mourinho - but not anymore.
Martial does not have to deliver a 9/10 performance in these kind of games anymore to put himself back in contention.
The Frenchman has long proved he is a Mourinho player - the manner in which the substitute took that brilliant winner against Tottenham in the Manchester rain in November told you that - but he is now approaching something resembling his best form again.
Martial is on track for his best ever goalscoring season, having already bagged 11 goals, and has had a hand in five of the eight goals United have scored when he has started in 2018.
You get the feeling that while he will continue to be rotated with Marcus Rashford - and there is no doubt that rivalry has brought out the best in the pair - Martial is in the driving seat for the bigger games as we enter the business end of the season.
Even just looking at the last four matches Martial was benched for, a pattern emerges: CSKA Moscow home, West Brom away, Southampton home and Derby home.
These were matches United were expected to win but, tellingly, they still needed Martial to enter the fray on each occasion as they looked to get back into the game, break the deadlock or find that killer second goal.
Martial is the one player that really gets fans off the edge of their seat at Old Trafford on a consistent basis. Nothing quite beats seeing a flying winger take on a player down the byline at the Theatre of Dreams and Martial has that timeless quality.
Perhaps that is why it is his chant - 'Tony Martial scores again' - which constantly rings out home and away. None of his team-mates can lay claim to that honour.
That popularity and ascent will not be affected by Alexis Sanchez's arrival. Leaving Martial out at Yeovil was Mourinho acknowledging the Frenchman's brilliant form and saving him for Wednesday' trip to Wembley, when he will surely unleash Martial and his new signing together for the first time against Spurs.
Sanchez loves playing on the left as it allows him to cut inside and let rip from 25 yards on his favoured right foot, but it has not been a coincidence that Martial has found something approaching his best form under Mourinho since the saga began to unfold.
Expect that to continue.
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